Rep. Vito Fossella has decided not to seek re-election.  

"After a great deal of consideration, I have made the decision not to seek re-election to the United States House of Representatives this November," Fossella says in the statement. "This choice was an extremely difficult one, balanced between my dedication to service to our great nation and the need to concentrate on healing the wounds that I have caused to my wife and family."

Today after a very long and tumultuous week for Rep. Vito Fossella (NY-13) the congressman has admitted to being the father of a three year old daughter of Laura Fay, who is not his wife.  While the personal affairs are not so politically news worthy it is how they were revealed that is spinning heads and becoming front page news for the NYC dailies more known for gossip than reporting.  We are seeing the downfall of Vito Fossella but also of the Republican party's last strong hold in New York City and by association in New York State.  Here is what has happened so far and the scenarios for down the road;

My name is Jonah and I work on Capitol Hill despite my previous best efforts to do nearly everything I can to rebel against the establishment in place there.  I know my name is Jonah in NYC and I just told you I live in DC, I did that just to mess with your perception of reality.  In all seriousness I am a 27 year old graphic designer who was living in New York City, actively involved in progressive political circles and loving life only to give that all up to take on what  to me is as close to my dream job as I can imagine at the moment.  I am the lead designer for the DNC and have a guy by the name of Howard Dean as my boss's boss.

During college I did pro-bono design work for several non profits (AIDS Rochester and Big Brother Big Sisters of Greater Rochester) and knew that I needed to devote my passion to socially conscience professional work.  That unfortunately would not be so easy later in life once I moved to NYC and doing good conflicted with being able to pay rent. My job and my political activity consumed two very different parts of my life and rarely did the two ever cross.

where: Porter's Dining Saloon
1207 19th St. NW  
Washington,  DC  20036
(located between Farragut North and Dupont stops)
Google Maps
time: 6:15pm start until whenever

If you are around come on out.  If you lurk, come out and lurk, you don't have to say anything.

That is me on the left. I grabbed my YearlyKos  lanyard and will have it on or on my bag.  Otherwise look for a bunch of people drinking in a bar talking about politics.

Also join our Facebook group to keep track of future gatherings.  Hope to see some of you tonight!

update Location: Porter's Dining Saloon
1207 19th St. NW  
Washington,  DC  20036
(located between Farragut North and Dupont stops)
Google Maps
Time: 6:15pm start until whenever

Jonah in NYC (in DC) here.  For anyone who missed last weeks DC Meetup post   fellow kossack am and I are organizing a happy hour which we hope may be the precursor for a DC Kossack Meetup.  

We are planning on gathering in Dupont around 6pm, Tuesday November 19th (tomorrow).  If you are a regular or just a lurker come out and grab a drink or some food with us.  There is no agenda other than winding down the work week in preparation for some turkey on Thursday.  If you are around drop a comment below and I will update this with further details as I get them, so check back in.  I will also try to post tomorrow morning.

Hello to my fellow DC Kossacks!  I am a recent transplant from NYC and over dinner with AM, campaign manager extraordinaire, were reminiscing of NYC Kossack Meetups and thought it might be a good idea to replicate the event down here.  Certainly there must be plenty of you out there, lurkers welcome, who could be talked into grabbing a drink and/or dinner and mingling with some like minded bloggers.

The following is an introductory How To guide for amatuer bloggers or those new to blogging.

From the people who brought you Tips for being an amateur blogger and How to be an amateur blogger come this month's installment, the Yearly Kos Local Blogging edition.  Now wait, before you go running for your credit card, let me ask how much would you pay for this?  It is not $1 million,  not $800k, not $500k.  Today, you get all of this for FREE!

A while ago I was responding to a dairy on advice for starting up a new district blog, and the comments turned into a diary.  This is the latest reincarnation of that piece that now lives on the Blogs United wiki.  If you have suggestions please include them in the comments, but also please join us on the wiki and join the Blogs United email lists and share your knowledge.

A while ago I was responding to a dairy on advice for starting up a new district blog, and the comments turned into a diary.  This is the latest reincarnation of that piece with several updates including; blogsunited06, HitTail, 50 State Blog Network, 2008 Race Tracker and Pingoat.

I jumped into political blogging on my own in Dec '05 over at NY13 and it has become my obsession of sorts. Now I am no expert, thus that is partially why this is a 'how to be an amateur blogger' post, so part of the intent is to gather additional advice from more seasoned campaign bloggers.  Most of this is more procedure and structure based suggestions on blogging, more so than advice on what to cover, but any and all advice is welcome.

For the past several days the floor in the House of Representatives has been open to every member to debate for five minutes the resolution on the floor opposing President Bush's troop escalation.  For the past three days members of both parties took to the floor to present their opinions and stances on the matter, all the while Rep. Fossella remained unseen and unheard from because he had yet to make up his mind.  In that time at least 11 Republicans have spoken out vociferously against the President's plan.  While the country is at war Rep. Fossella has no problems addressing other pressing issues such as honoring Alexander Hamilton on his 250th anniversary of his birth.  However ask him to present a strategy for improving the safety of our troops in the Middle East or ask him a possible more black and white issue such as, should we send more troops or should we start bringing our troops home and this politician's thought process draws to a halt.  

I am just slightly obsessed with the Congressional races of NY-13 and the Republican incumbent Rep. Vito Fossella.  So I get rather giddy when I can finally have a reason to respond to the Swing State Project open thread question of 'what races are you interested in?'  As I started writing this post initially for some unknown reason, ok for an obvious reason you will see I started singing Tango: Maureen to myself so my apologies for getting the tune stuck in your head as well.  And thus, the flirtation;

The DCCC has recently released some notes indicating that they plan on targeting Rep. Vito Fossella (NY-13) rather hard in his quest for a seventh term in 2008.  Oh this is exciting.  This from their press release on Jan 12;

I asked the campaign if they had any use for me if I took off election day and they said sure come up.  I asked if there was anything going on early Tuesday that they could use me for and they said sure come on up.

BAM!  The NY Times opens up with this;

The city's most interesting election races are in districts that cover Staten Island and parts of neighboring Brooklyn. Reflecting the general state of voter discontent across the country, the usually comfortable incumbent congressman, Representative Vito Fossella, is in an unexpectedly spirited match-up, while two retirements in the State Legislature offer an opportunity to bring fresh faces and ideas to a State Capitol in dire need of both.

Rep. Vito Fossella (R) as you hopefully know by now, is the only Republican to represent New York City in Congress.  Stephen Harrison (D) is his Democratic Challenger (they can't actually call him the victor until Fossella starts crying).

The only relatively safe Republicans in NY this cycle are perhaps John McHugh in the 23rd and Vito Fossella in the 13th.

The only relatively safe Republicans in NY this cycle are perhaps John McHugh in the 23rd and Vito Fossella in the 13th.

And I wouldn't rest too easy if I were Fossella or McHugh. Republicans have become persona non grata in New York.

"I am shocked and disgusted by this twisted attempt to justify pedophilia."

"It crosses the line into deviancy to suggest that an 8-year old and a 45-year old could have a consensual sexual relationship. That is sexual assault, and there is no way to justify it."

"It seems these days that it is fairly easy to find a group that will attempt to justify the most heinous and ghastly acts."

"This is particularly disturbing in light of reports by the Child Advocacy Center that child sexual assault cases here are up this year. I can't begin to imagine what's next. An attempt to justify rape or domestic violence?"  

I struggle sometimes to find daily stories to write about over at NY13 being just an ordinary guy fumbling around thomas.gov and fec.gov filings.  With the Times, NY Sun, Daily News and Post I thought there may be more coverage of the only competative Congressional race in the city.  But I am out to change that.

Most of this is more proceedure and structure based suggestions on blogging, moreso than advice on what to cover, but any and all advice is welcome.